Entrepreneurship and embeddedness : process, context and theoretical foundations

Author's accepted version (postprint).This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Entrepreneurship & Regional Development on 31/03/2022.Available online: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08985626.2022.2055152In this article, we introduce the special issue on entrepreneurship and embeddedness. We do so by providing a brief overview of existing research on the topic focused on three important conversations related to process, context and theoretical foundations. The overview highlights essential contributions from extant research and suggests that expansion and advancement in the research conversation can be accomplished by focusing on dynamic and multilayered conceptualizations of embeddedness and by broadening the theoretical foundations of our research. We also present and position the papers in the special issue within the conversations on process, context and theoretical foundations in entrepreneurship research on embeddedness.acceptedVersionpublishedVersio

Exploring the masculinization of innovation practice within a municipality

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to generate an empirically informed theoretical framework which can be used to analyze the relationship between gender and innovation in the context of a municipality. The authors present and analyze three illustrative tales from a feminist perspective. The authors thus offer a more balanced approach to the conceptualization of gendered ascriptions with respect to the possible outcomes of innovation work in a public context. Design/methodology/approach: An ethnographic account which employed “shadowing” as a method of observation. Findings: The article presents a debate on how the social construction of gender and innovation can be placed in the context of a municipal reality. Our analysis reveals how the complexities of a gendered work life within a municipality can create paradoxes. A constructionism approach was used in the identification of hidden and unspoken paradoxes that exist in public spheres. Research limitations/implications: The authors used empirical tales from a very specific context, namely a Swedish municipality. The central implication of this study is the recognition of innovation as being masculine-gendered within the feminine context. This implication thereby deepens our understanding of gender paradoxes in the public sector. Practical implications: This study provides insights to practitioners who intend to work with innovation in a public organization. Social implications: The social implications of this study is that when a male-gendered concept like innovation is implemented in a female-gendered context, like a municipality, it is of importance to contextualize the concept. Originality/value: The empirical value of examples of a gendered work landscape at a Swedish municipality

Corporate community responsibility as an outcome of individual embeddedness

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to improve our understanding of the nature of social responsibility in actual practices and, specifically, the influence of individuals on these processes.  Design/methodology/approach: An abductive approach is applied (Alvesson and Sköldberg 1994), i.e. theory is developed by moving between theory and four empirical cases. The storeis highlight the importance of the individual and closeness to local stakeholders and the presence of overlapping rationales. Findings: The individuals’ simultaneous roles – as owners, managers, and community members – influence how they are held or see themselves as accountable and how they account for the firms’ engagement in the community. The activities are conducted in the name of the firm but originate from private as well as business-oriented concerns. Our conclusions encourage an extension of the CSR construct to approach it as an entangled phenomenon resulting from the firm and the individual embeddedness in internal and external cultures. Originality/value: This study brings the individual managers and owner-managers into focus and how their interplay with the surrounding context can create additional dimensions of accountability, which impact on the decisions taken in regard to CSR. A micro-perspective is applied. Corporate community responsibility, particularly in smaller and rural communities, contributes to recognize and understand how individuals influence, and are influenced by CSR

How women entrepreneurs build embeddedness : a case study approach

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine how women entrepreneurs are building embeddedness into male-gendered fields and how they are creating embedding in such fields in practice.Design/methodology/approachThe qualitative methodology and three indicative case stories within gastronomic industry are illustrated and analysed.FindingsThe contribution of this study lies in the examination of the multifaceted embedding building process from dis-embedded, marginalised and suppressed position by women entrepreneurs. This was achieved with the help of building embedding through two strategies: sameness, that is, becoming one of the boys and then becoming a challenger, thereby enhancing their professional position.Research limitations/implicationsThe study is subject to limitations; a small sample is not suited for the generalizability of results. The most important implication of this study is the identification of the process of building embeddedness as the most critical resource for women’s entrepreneurship that should be supported by the scholarly and business community.Originality/valueThe theoretical framework developed for this study laid the foundation for developing literature on the embeddedness of women’s entrepreneurship and how the process of creating embedding becomes instrumental in business ownership

Where the two logics of institutional theory and entrepreneurship merge: are family businesses caught in the past or stuck in the future?

The aim of this article is to investigate how owners of family businesses combine their traditional heritage with changes in a new competitive arena. This is done by allowing the owners and managers of six vineyards to give voice to their concerns about the past, present, and future. The findings suggest that family businesses in the South African wine industry are subject to a process of institutionalisation in which entrepreneurial activities, which are part of this process, may not be as entrepreneurial as they appear at first. It is found that the two forms of logic behind the institutionalisation of the family firm and entrepreneurial activities in the context of the post-apartheid era can be successfully merged. Theoretical and practical implications bring the article to a close

Entrepreneurship education and gender : The man-made entrepreneur

As the literature on entrepreneurship education grows, the issue of equality in entrepreneurship education has been raised; i.e., whether students are educated to become entrepreneurs equally. This article provides a critical and thought-provoking analysis of a portfolio of practices that, on the surface, appear to be successful in training entrepreneurs. To this purpose, we initiate a debate on what entrepreneurship education programmes tend to omit. We provide an argument within entrepreneurship scholarship that takes into consideration the diversity and complexity of gender in entrepreneurship. We present an insightful example of what we do in our university classrooms whilst calling for a more encompassing perspective of gender within present-day teaching practice. We acknowledge that academic entrepreneurship education is gendered (Ahl, 2006) and we show how hegemonic masculine-framed foundations of entrepreneurship influence the vocabulary of teaching and learning in Sweden. The paper provides insights into how both teachers and students unluckily, fail to identify the masculinisation of entrepreneurship education

Virtual entrepreneurs : Boundary spanning between the private and the public spheres in the entrepreneuring process

This article is located within the context of women entrepreneurs involved in the process of virtual enterprising. It examines the process of structure building as an embedding process from a constructivist perspective. The research aims to ask whether entrepreneurship is a boundless process embedded in family and firm at the same time and how they capitalized on structuring resources embedded in both. The paper adopts a women entrepreneurship perspective based on a meaning centred approach. The study revealed that building virtual embeddedness is contingent on the idiosyncratic circumstances of the private sphere of entrepreneurs and the specific dynamics of their Internet bound communication of values to their audience. Finally, the article focuses on the ways in which different women might accommodate or resist public sphere to the advantage of the private life style

Mind the gap and bridge the gap: Research excellence and diffusion of academic knowledge in Sweden

This paper aims to highlight the changing and diversifying nature of academic work related to various forms of knowledge production and diffusion. Focusing on the changing research policy landscape in Sweden, three interrelated questions are investigated: what academics do in terms of commercialisation and public dissemination; how they perform these activities; and why they engage in these activities. Based on data from a recent survey with over 10,000 academics in Sweden, we identify and analyse 'high-performing' researchers, in the context of the commercialisation and public dissemination of their academic work. The quantitative analysis is supplemented by qualitative interviews with scientists at strong research environments in Sweden. We argue that there is a virtuous cycle connecting different academic activities in strong research environments research excellence and excellence in knowledge production on one hand, and knowledge diffusion activities, such as commercialisation and public dissemination, on the other hand